Friday, April 23, 2010

My Azure Standard Order


Here's what I got this month from Azure Standard. Yes, I realize that it doesn't look like a great amount of items, but each of them should last us a while.


6 lbs Raw mozzarella - $17.95 We like to make our own pizzas on the weekends. My plan is to shred the cheese, freeze it and package it into six 1 lb packages. Which should give us 6 pizzas worth.

2.5 lbs Organic shredded coconut - $5.50 I like to use shredded coconut in everything from muffins, scones and cookies to decorative topping for things like brownies. Toast it up and the flavor intensifies. Yum! I bet this will last us a year.

5 lbs Organic oatmeal - $4.40 We don't eat a lot of oatmeal so it should last us a couple months at least.

5 lbs Lundberg Basmati rice - $7.25

1 gallon Raw Orange Blossom honey - $29.95 This should last us a long time. And did you know that honey doesn't have an expiration? Hmmm, now I'll have to figure out how to package it into smaller, usable containers....

2 lbs Organic garbanzo beans $3.35 One of my goals is to try to get away from using canned beans. I'm going to see if I can figure out how to soak, cook or whatever you do with hard beans to make them edible. Wish me luck :)

32 oz Organic apple cider vinegar $3.75 Great in homemade salad dressings among other things. This should last us quite a while too.

1 lb Organic dried cranberries $11.15 Ouch, these were expensive....but it will be great in trail mix for the kids.

2 lbs Dry roasted peanuts $4.40 Ditto

Total: $87.70

Erika

5 comments:

Taia said...

For garbanzo beans, either soak them overnight and then rinse and drain them before boiling until soft or plan to boil them for an hour or so. Exact time depends on age and how dry the beans are.

I encourage you to look into what "organic" means. My sister is an agricultural engineer for Dow Chemical and most commercially available organic foods are grown with pesticides and herbicides, just "approved" ones, for example, pyrethroids derived from chrysanthemum root instead of synthesized. You can argue that chrysanthemum root is "natural" and chemical processes aren't, but if you wouldn't eat large quantities of toxic chrysanthemum root, why would you consider it preferable to eat vegetables sprayed with it? Synthetic pyrethroids are optimized for use at a lower concentration.

Anyway, look into organic food and consider your values before "jumping on the bandwagon," (though Dow is making a lot of money from selling organic agricultural chemicals, keeping my sister employed) The people making them just sort of wonder why people are so hung up on the "organic" definition.

The Davis Family said...

I like garbanzo beans. I have cooked them up and put them into a nice soy sauce seasoned rice with slivered almonds and stir fried veggies. Yum! Beans really are NOT hard to cook, they just take a little forethought, that is, soaking them overnight the day before.

My favorite way to cook beans is to soak 12-24 hours with a little lemon juice - 1 Tbsp per cup of beans (supposedly cuts the gassiness). Then I drain them and put them in a slow-cooker covered with water until they're soft (all day?). I will often add some garlic and salt and whatever else to make them smell great while cooking!

Aimee said...

You should checkout this post at the Making Dough blog: http://making-dough.blogspot.com/2008/12/taste-test-tuesday-beans-beans.html Emily has really nice instructions and photos on soaking/cooking beans and then draining and freezing the precooked beans. Having the precooked beans in the freezer that only need to be defrosted and heated can be a life saver!

Anonymous said...

if you have a crockpot, this is the easiest way to cook beans... the night before, get the crockpot out, put the beans in, and add water. in the morning, just turn it on! no watching, no effort... depending on if you're home or now use high or low (so if you're out all day, put it on low, home use high) and then after a few hours, check if the beans seem done.

Debra said...

I can my own beans. It is so simple, cheap and they are nice to have on hand for refried beans or taco soup or hummus. Trust me, this is easy.

I posted about it:
http://happygoldenyears.blogspot.com/2009/06/canning-beans.html

Also, here is a recipe for garbanzo bean soup that I had in spain...

http://happygoldenyears.blogspot.com/2010/03/tias-basque-country-garbanzo-bean-soup.html

Blessings,